World Bank releases new report on climate change, global warming

The report that talks about ways to mitigate the effects of climate change says fast action to cut common pollutants like soot (also known as black carbon) and methane will not only slow global warming, but save millions of lives.

LUCKNOW: World Bank has released a new report -- On Thin Ice: How Cutting Pollution can Slow Warming and Save Lives. The report that talks about ways to mitigate the effects of climate change says fast action to cut common pollutants like soot (also known as black carbon) and methane will not only slow global warming, but save millions of lives.

Reductions of these so-called short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) would slow rapid melting in mountain regions with glaciers, like the Himalayas and the Arctic. More than one million premature deaths could be avoided annually in the Himalayan region from reducing emissions of black carbon and methane. It would also bring multiple health, crop and ecosystem benefits, and decrease risks to development from flooding and water shortages says a new scientific study.

According to the study measures to reduce these emissions in the Himalayan region could increase crop yields for staples such as rice and wheat by over 15 million tons annually.

The health of people around the world will improve greatly if we reduce emissions of black carbon and methane. Limiting these emissions also will be an important contributor to the fight against climate change,"said Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group.

'On Thin Ice: How Cutting Pollution can Slow Warming and Save Lives' is about how climate change is affecting the cryosphere those snow-capped mountain ranges, brilliant glaciers and vast permafrost regions on which all of us depend.

It warns that current warming in the cryosphere could have dire human consequences from resulting sea level rise, increased water stress and more extreme weather. For example, the release of large CO2 and methane stores as a result of melting permafrost could contribute up to 30% more carbon to the atmosphere by the end of the century.

The Himalayan mountain ranges extending 2,400 km through six nations (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Bhutan, and Nepal) make up the largest cryosphere region. Rapid climate induced changes in the region will directly affect the water resources of more than 1.5 billion lives, as well as services such as electricity, a nd the food supplies of 3 billion people.

Decrease in glacial and snow cover has been recorded across the Himalayan region with an increase of 1.5 degree C in the annual mean surface temperature over pre-industrial average temperatures.

The report also lays out immediate measures we can take to slow the ice melt including reducing the black carbon emissions from diesel-fueled vehicles and solid fuel cooking fires that lowers the reflectivity of snow and ice, leading to greater melting.

Such actions would also provide important health, agriculture and other development benefits. According to the report, if more clean cook-stoves stoves that use less or cleaner fuel would be used it could save one million lives. While, a 50% drop in open field and forest burning could result in 190,000 fewer deaths every year, many of them in Europe and Central Asia.

Reductions in emissions from diesel transport and equipment, meanwhile, could result in more than 16 million tons of additional yield in crops such as rice, soy and wheat, especially in Southeast Asia; and also avert 340,000 premature deaths.